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Gopher Broke
Gopher Broke is a 1958 Looney Tunes short starring the Goofy Gophers and the Barnyard Dawg and directed by Robert McKimson. The voices were performed by Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg. Title The title is a pun on the phrase "go for broke." Plot When their vegetables are "stolen," the Goofy Gophers surface to investigate. They spy a truck carrying the produce away so they follow it to the barn. When the farmer leaves, they enter, but they run back out when they see Barnyard Dawg napping just inside, knowing that dogs are gopher killers. They deduce they must get rid of the dog and begin making plans. They lower a large metal lid over the dog, spread some banana peels on the floor, then strike the lid with a mallet. The lid and Dawg vibrate violently, and Dawg slips on the banana peels out the door of the barn and into the pig's watering trough. Dawg cautiously returns, but sees no danger and settles down to nap again. The gophers tie one end of a rope to his tail and the other end to a hay bale which, when dropped from the loft, pulls Dawg out the door and lands him in the well. As Dawg climbs out, the pig is watching him again. Dawg reads in The Significance of Dreams by Sigmund Fraud that nightmares never really happened. He laughs off his experiences and goes back to sleep. The gophers saw a circle of floor around him, carry him outside, and float him in the duck pond, where a duck startles him awake. He runs back to the barn and swallows a bunch of sleeping pills and falls sound asleep. The gophers tighten a girdle around him and attach it to a large helium balloon. As Dawg floats away, they begin to recover their vegetables. Meanwhile, Dawg lands on top of a telephone pole, seated, with the pig watching from below. When a bird flies by, he has a nervous breakdown and he flies after it. Later, at the psychiatrist's office, Dr. Cy Kosis is counseling his patient... the pig! He is convincing the pig that dogs don't fly, when Dawg flies past the window, still wearing the girdle, so the disillusioned doctor joins his patient on the couch. Notes * This cartoon's plot is essentially a remake/reworking of the Looney Tunes cartoon "Mouse Wreckers" (1949), with the Goofy Gophers in the role of Hubie and Bertie and Barnyard Dawg in the role of Claude Cat. This cartoon also marks Barnyard Dawg's final appearance outside a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon. * This is the first cartoon since "A Bone for a Bone" (1951) where the Goofy Gophers face off against canine foes, and the only cartoon to pair Barnyard Dawg and the Goofy Gophers. * Robert McKimson returned to directing the Goofy Gophers' cartoons for the first time since "A Ham in a Role" (1949) nine years earlier; he would later direct the Gophers' final cartoon "Tease for Two" (1965), which pits them against a villainous Daffy Duck. ** This was the first Goofy Gophers cartoon that was directed by Robert McKimson right from the start; as for A Ham in a Role it was initially scheduled to be directed by Arthur Davis, but when Warner Bros. dissolved Davis' unit in 1949 due to budget problems the directing duties for A Ham in a Role were instead handed over to McKimson and his unit. * This is one of six cartoons scored by John Seely of Capitol Records using stock music from the Hi-Q library because of a musicians' strike in 1958. The others are "Weasel While You Work", "Hip Hip-Hurry!", "Hook, Line and Stinker", "Pre-Hysterical Hare", and "A Bird in a Bonnet". Censorship *On ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, the part where an anxious Barnyard Dawg swallows an entire box of sleeping pills was cut.http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-g.aspx Availability *DVD - Looney Tunes Super Stars' Foghorn Leghorn & Friends: Barnyard Bigmouth Gallery Gopher Broke screenshot of Barnyard Dawg flying.jpg References Category:1958 Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Robert McKimson Category:Shorts Category:Goofy Gophers Cartoons Category:Barnyard Dawg Cartoons Category:Cartoons with music by John Seely Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce Category:Cartoons animated by Warren Batchelder Category:Cartoons animated by Tom Ray Category:Cartoons animated by George Grandpré Category:Cartoons animated by Ted Bonnicksen Category:Cartoons with layouts by Robert Gribbroek Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by William Butler Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons produced by John W. Burton Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Stan Freberg